Meet Virginia’s Darden School of Business Class Of 2018

Anisa (McCree) Mechler

University of Virginia, Darden School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Engineer; learning to lead and talk to humans. Grammar nerd.

Hometown: Dallas, TX

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m learning to be a race car driver.

Undergraduate School and Major: MIT – S.B. Chemical Engineering

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Dominion Engineering, Engineer (formerly Associate Engineer)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Recognizing that my 15-year-old self’s dream of being a chemical engineer needed a makeover.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Don’t read too many P&Q “Handicapping” articles! (Keep your head down and try to stay above the fray.)  No other candidate is exactly like you and nobody besides you (and your closest friends and family) really know what you’re looking for.

Talk to the people closest to you about your goals; ask them to give you tough feedback. Taking the time to define yourself as a candidate makes the rest of the application go more smoothly.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA?  Early in the application process, I became a case-method convert, but it wasn’t until I visited Darden that I understood how powerful the case method could be in an intimate section environment.  Everyone at Darden talks about the tight community, and the close relationships I witnessed between the faculty and students at Darden really appealed to me.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? I think it would be awesome to be a Formula 1 strategist for a season. One of my short-term objectives in business school is to pivot to a strategy role, and Formula 1 is an extremely strategic sport. The strategists have to be prepared to make split-second decisions based on mountains of data, and a mistake at any point could cost your team the race.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  I’d like to be seen as a thoughtful and insightful contributor to the case method environment. I’d like to be known as a competent, compassionate, and capable leader.